#whittertwitter rants

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Took advantage of a break at work to go back and play more KHIII.

Specifically, the part where all seven Guardians of Light are gathered. And...ugh.

So, there were some good moments! Getting to fight Vanitas as Aqua was a delight, as was Vanitas’ presence in general, and the scene with Axel and Saix in Twilight Town cracked me up. But the scene where everyone reconvenes at Mysterious Tower, the big honking reveal during the Axel and Saix scene, and the Destiny Islands scene all annoyed me in various ways. 

For the first, I’ve always had a problem with that thing in Kingdom Hearts where people act like they’re childhood best friends even though they’ve only met once, and it was an interaction less meaningful than your average customer oversharing at a retail worker, and this scene was FULL of that. Axel continually butting in highlights just how out of place he is as a Keyblade wielder/Guardian of Light, and the fourth wall breaking was a little on the nose. (Though I liked Jiminy staring directly into the camera while talking about how they can check their Gummiphones if they’re lost, lol.)

The big honking reveal is tied in with another problem I have with the series: Everything is connected, no matter how silly the connection is; I remember Nomura being shocked at Aqua’s popularity because she wasn’t tied to another character. Was there any prior indication that Axel and Saix were also Ansem’s apprentices or that they were friends with Kairi? No. Does it add anything to the story? No, and in fact, it DETRACTS from the story, because now not only is Axel friends with Roxas because of his “friendship” with Ven, it seems like he was only friends with Xion because of his friendship with Kairi. If they want me to like Xion and think she’s people, they really need to stop having all her friends project other people onto her. Just a thought.

So instead of Repliku showing up as a Nort, he shows up as Riku’s imaginary friend to give him something to do while Sora and Kairi have their forced romantic moment. Alright then. I’m actually really annoyed at how much Kairi has been shafted in this game, though I don’t know why I’m surprised given the track record for female characters in this series. Would it have killed them to give her more than two cutscenes before this point? Or, horror of horrors, actually let her tag along with Sora, Donald, and Goofy or Mickey and Riku? It would’ve given the paopu fruit scene so much more weight!

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Finished KHIII last week, but needed some time for it to sink in.

HOO BOY.

First off, the pacing was weird; I feel that’s due in no small part to the lack of a true midpoint like the other games, where you’d usually return to the world you started out in or go to a new original world to break up the first set of worlds from the second (or in KHII’s case, the first visits from the second visits). And KHIII does a better job of having the overarching plot in the Disney worlds, but there’s still a lot that gets off-loaded at the very end, leaving little time for meaningful character interaction because so many characters get rescued right before or during the last world.

Second, Kairi deserved better. So, SO much better. Like this and my third point are my biggest reasons why I couldn’t fully enjoy the ending. And I'm definitely going to blame Nomura/Nojima/whoever decided to make her a Keyblade wielder in the first place, because that plus them hyping her up naturally caused fans to have certain expectations for her in KHIII. And what came of it? You could’ve left her as just a Princess of Heart (since they had her carry over into the New Seven Hearts for some reason) and the plot wouldn’t have changed significantly. She could still be at the Keyblade Graveyard to get kidnapped since Donald and Goofy were there despite not being Keyblade wielders, just give her some light powers like Minnie did during her escort mission in KHII. All they’d really have to do is introduce Roxas back to the plot earlier to fill her role as one of the Guardians of Light. THAT’S NOT A GOOD SIGN. And then after hyping her up so much, she gets knocked the fuck out almost immediately and later killed (?) to motivate Sora. 

And I know I complained in an earlier liveblog about Axel and Saix apparently having been friends with her when they all lived in Radiant Garden and becoming apprentices (?!)  to try and rescue her, but in hindsight that’s so much better than it most likely being Skuld. Along with Skuld being the girl Ansem SOD and Ansem the Wise were talking about in Twilight Town. It’s like they were determined to strip Kairi of everything that makes her unique and interesting, and shove her into the damsel in distress box.

Skuld leads into my next point though, which is just how much the ending ties into the mobile game. Namely, it’s more than was advertised and I’m deeply annoyed by that. Okay, Ephemer and the Foretellers were actually shown in Back Cover, so I’m fine with that. What really annoys me is the stuff with Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene’s human selves being teased and then never answered. And since the mobile game has only started getting into the deal with Lauriam and Elrena, with Demyx and Luxord’s human selves nowhere in sight, plus the next Kingdom Hearts game probably not coming out until after the FFVII Remake is done and dusted...it doesn’t feel like a teaser for the next game, but rather a teaser to entice people to play/keep playing their gacha nonsense.

Lastly, I feel like characterization for the Norts was kinda weird toward the end. Master Xehanort’s mostly, because I feel like his motivation got (partially) retconned, but I’d need to rewatch his scenes in earlier games/read Master Xehanort’s reports to be sure.

Most of my other complaints (namely TIME TRAVEL GAHHH) were introduced in other games, so I can’t hold them against KHIII specifically.

If nothing else, I liked the endgame boss fights! It was nice fighting the Organization members who’d only been fought with the card system and/or the gimmicky boss fights in KHII, and I liked most of the send-offs, and the Final World was dope. I’m so glad the Guardian wasn’t Eraqus, though I feel Aqua and Ven should’ve played a larger role in saving Terra. Scala ad Caelum was a cool final boss arena, and Master Xehanort as the final boss was great, even if the new voice actor can’t hold a candle to Leonard Nimoy. 

Overall still have positive feelings for the game as a whole; I’d definitely rank it near the top in terms of gameplay, and even if the ending got me down, I still loved how well chosen most of the Disney Worlds were. Here in a bit, I’ll go into the things I would’ve changed about KHIII specifically with few if any changes to the games preceding it, and then hopefully over the next week or so start going into my big honking series-wide Kingdom Hearts rewrite that I’ve been planning since around the time Days/Birth by Sleep/Coded came out but never really felt like posting about online until after KHIII was released and I had the big picture.

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And right as I was getting into the Assassin’s Festival, the PS4 not only crashed, but then sent me an error message saying the date for FFXV was corrupt and I’d have to delete it all.

This is the second time this has happened.

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If I never see “CE-34878-0″ again, it will be too soon.

I know I’ve talked about this before in the tags, but I don’t think I’ve ever posted about it before. (Or if I did, it was angry keysmash that was promptly deleted.) I’ve been having problems with Final Fantasy XV. When I first got it, it would occasionally crash if I’d been playing it too long. No big deal, my PS4 was probably overheating or something, I should probably take a break. Except “occasionally” became “all the time” and “probably overheating or something” became “I looked at it funny.”

No other PS4 game I have does this. (At least, not like this; Persona 5 crashed a grand total of once, and I know I’ve played longer sessions of that than I’ve ever played of FFXV.) I tried other copies of FFXV, I sent my PS4 in to the shop, I even bought one of those PS4 stands with a built-in fan, and none of them worked. I thought my problems were over because I was able to play Episode Prompto without too much fuss, but then it crashed three times in the span of about an hour while I was trying to get the Dream Egg from the Moogle Chocobo Carnival.

Thoughts?

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hinamoris replied to your post:Bleach characters who’ve had more than one volume...

I was mad about Momo not getting a volume poem back then too… but there’s still time. I think she might have a scene later when she actually talks to Aizen… or at least I hope so.

At this point, I'm really concerned that Kubo isn't going to do a damn thing with the Visored captains or their lieutenants before Bleach ends, at least nothing of significance. Well, aside from nerfing them to make the Sternritter look good. I do hope you're right, though.

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Bleach characters who've had more than one volume poem:

Ichigo

Rukia

Orihime

Byakuya

Zangetsu

Gin

Shinji

Ulquiorra

Grimmjow

Yamamoto

Aizen

Bleach characters who've had a volume poem despite not being very important:

Luppi

Dordoni

Cirucci

Ayon

Bleach characters who haven't had a volume poem despite being fairly important:

Momo

Komamura

Kyouraku

Ukitake

Starrk and Lilynette

Isshin

Ryuuken

I'm pretty sure Komamura will be on the cover of the next volume, considering the next several chapters are all about him. Kyouraku will probably get a volume poem here fairly soon, especially if the fans are right about him being in cahoots with Aizen; Ukitake, Isshin, and/or Ryuuken might also get volume poems if Kubo remembers their existence before the end of Bleach.

Starrk and Lilynette are obviously never going to get a volume poem, which I think is kinda unfair considering all the other Espada got volume poems. (Except Zommari, who was pretty lame. And Aaroniero, if you don't count Kaien's volume poem.) Momo also probably won't get a volume poem, which pisses me off because her saving Rangiku happens in the volume with FUCKING AYON on the cover; Kubo totally had the opportunity to give her a volume cover, but he chose not to take it.

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To all the haters saying "I'm glad Shinji Hirako almost died!" or "Shinji Hirako doesn't deserve to be a captain!" or "Momo Hinamori is so worthless!"

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Here, have Hiyori channeling my thoughts re: finals week.